The Senator Nenadi Usman-led Interim National Working Committee of the Labour Party (LP) has called on President Bola Tinubu to either live up to his constitutional duty of protecting the lives and property of Nigerians or step down from office.

The party accused the President and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of failing in this fundamental responsibility despite allocating over N6.5 trillion and several billions of U.S. dollars to defence spending in the last decade.

Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Tony Akeni, stated this in Abuja on Thursday.

He said the current security crisis is a cumulative failure of both the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which held power before 2015, insisting that neither party could absolve itself of blame.

According to Akeni: “The principal function of government is the security of lives and property. If President Tinubu cannot deliver this, he should sack Nuhu Ribadu, reconfigure the armed services, step up his security governance, or do Nigerians a patriotic favour by sacking himself.”

He recalled that between 2006 and 2021 alone, 50,252 Nigerians were killed in 2,288 terrorist attacks, while 51,425 others died from kidnappings, robberies, rapes, police brutality, extra-judicial killings, and other violent crimes—a combined total of 101,677 deaths, averaging 57 violent deaths daily.

“More Security Budgets, More Insecurity”

The LP spokesperson described as paradoxical the trend where insecurity worsens as security budgets increase.

“Between 2016 and 2022, the APC-led administration under Muhammadu Buhari spent $9.9 billion on security. The defence budget rose from $2.4 billion in 2020 to $4.5 billion. In 2025, Tinubu increased it to an all-time high of ?6.57 trillion.

“In the same period, the Nigeria Police budget grew from ?783 billion in 2022 to ?969.6 billion in 2024. Yet killings and abductions continue unabated, as seen in last Tuesday’s mosque massacre in Katsina and similar incidents in Plateau, Benue and other parts of the North,” he said.

“APC, a Government of Condolence Delegations”

The party accused both PDP and APC of diverting defence allocations into private pockets, pointing to the proliferation of private estates, plazas, and luxury properties owned by public officials in Nigeria and abroad.

“The death toll in Nigeria today rivals or exceeds that of countries in full-blown war,” Akeni added.

The Labour Party expressed condolences to families of victims of the Katsina mosque massacre and mass abduction in Malumfashi Local Government, where 30 worshippers were gunned down during morning prayers, while over 20 others were burnt alive in their homes.

It also commiserated with the Acting Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Faruk Lawal Jobe, describing the killings as “another tragic reminder of the government’s failure to protect its citizens." (Vanguard)